To Be a Power in the Shadows! (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter Pr6

Part 6

It’s the end of the day, and my sister still isn’t back yet. But hey, Zeta’s around, so even if there is trouble, I’m sure it’ll be fine.

I head to the yard behind the dorms and grill the dried mackerel Zeta gave me. It’s past lights-out, and everything is dark.

“All right, it should be about done.”

The mackerel fat makes a delicious sizzling sound as it drips into the open-air fire.

“Actually, maybe it needs a little longer?”

I’m enjoying this little one-man barbeque I’ve got going on. I can feel it cleansing my heart. Hearts pick up a lot of rot just going through life, you know.

As I stare listlessly at the fire, I sense something approaching at an incredible speed.

“Boss man!! I finally found you!!”

Delta comes rushing in with her dog ears twitching.

“Hey there. It’s late, so try to keep it down.”

“I hunted the Black Juggler!!”

“That’s nice. It’s late, so try to keep it down.”

“And Alpha praised me!!”

“Good for you. It’s late, so try to keep it down.”

“You should praise me, too, Boss man!!”

“There, there, there, there. Good girl.” I give her head a rough scritch, and her tail wags vigorously. “Now, it’s late, so try to keep it down.”

“I’ll be quiet!!” she shouts, then clamps her hands over her mouth. “I’ll talk real quiet-like,” she whispers.

“Yeah, that’s perfect.”

Her voice gradually starts creeping back up in volume. “Got it. I dug that hole you asked me to, Boss man.”

“You dug a what? Are you sure I told you to do that?”

“You did!”

Her voice is back to its normal level already.

“I did? Well, if you say so.”

“And inside, I found this! You were right, Boss man! Look at how great it is!”

Delta grins, revealing the bright red jewel clutched between her teeth.

“Why’s it in your mouth?”

“So I don’t lose it!”

“Can’t argue with that logic.”

“Hee-hee.”

I take the saliva-flecked jewel from Delta. It sparkles a beautiful shade of red.

“Let’s have a look… Ooh, I bet this’d sell for a lot.”

It’s only about the size of a marble, but there’s something fantastical about the way it’s gleaming.

“I did good!!”

“There, there, there, there. Good girl.”

I give her head another scritch. She practically melts in my hand.

“I want a reward!”

“Yeah, that’s fair.”

“Ooh, something smells tasty!”

The instant she looks over at the fire, the mackerel vanishes.

“Is this my reward?!”

It’s in her hand now.

“No, that was actually a gift from Zeta…”

“Thanks!”

She’s not listening.

Delta takes a big bite and smiles in delight. “It’s so good!”

Eh, she did do well.

“I guess this is fine.”

Right as I come to terms with it, I hear a branch snapping.

“Doggy…what’re you eating?”

I turn around to find Zeta. The look in her eyes is ice-cold.

Delta lets out a threatening growl. “Grrr, Felid! I’m eating my reward!”

“I got that mackerel for our lord. It’s not yours.”

“Back off! It’s my reward!”

With that, Delta swallows the rest of the mackerel whole.

Zeta lets out a wordless gasp. “Ah—!”

Delta, meanwhile, doesn’t have a care in the world. “Mmm, tasty.”

“You little…”

Zeta’s throat starts rumbling.

“You’re being a pest, Felid. Go away, or I’ll send you flying!”

“I saved the tastiest mackerel for our lord, and now… This is unacceptable.”

“All right, guys, let’s all take a deeeep breath.”

Things look like they’re about to get a little bit ugly, so I step in and get between them.

Both of them fix their gazes on me.

“Uh… Look, I was just grilling the mackerel; I didn’t actually give it to anyone—”

Self-preservation is key when things look like they’re gonna get ugly. The most important thing to do here to keep from getting sucked into whatever’s about to happen is to impress on them that I had nothing to do with this.

“—so the bottom line is, this isn’t my fault.”

“Yeah. Not your fault.”

“Boss man did nothing wrong!”

“Exactly. I did nothing wrong.”

At no point did I ever mishandle the mackerel. It got eaten because of an unfortunate misunderstanding, nothing more.

““And that means—””

Zeta and Delta point at each other…

““—it’s her fault!!””

…then finish each other’s sentences.

“Huh?” I splutter.

Their magic flares up and explodes.

The shock wave sends me flying, and I spin gracefully through the air before sticking the landing perfectly a short distance from them.

“You stole my tribute to our lord, you mangy mutt. You’re dead meat.”

“You made a big fuss over my rightful reward, Felid. You’re deader meat!”

“Uhh… Look, I don’t think I’m really following here, but what’s important is that we’re all in agreement that this isn’t my fault.”

I decide to quietly back away.

Zeta and Delta have never gotten along, and the two of them fight constantly. Their brawls usually last until they tear up a field or knock over a house or something and Alpha gets pissed at them.

“Make sure you guys don’t go too overboard, ’kay?”

The one silver lining is that the shock wave didn’t reach the dorms.

“I’ll crush you,” Delta says, readying her sword and entering her combat stance.

“You need to be punished.”

Zeta narrows her cold eyes—then vanishes. There’s no warning or anything. She’s just gone.

Delta cocks her head in puzzlement. “Did she run away?”

The moment the words leave her mouth, a black blade materializes behind her back.

“ ”

Delta dodges just before it can mow her down, but doing so forces her into a precarious position, and she tumbles to the ground.

Voom. Voom. Voom. Another set of blades comes raining down on her.

“Hmph.”

Delta dodges them all.

After crawling across the ground, she rolls over and leaps back up in a way no human could have pulled off.

“Where are you hiding, Felid?”

Zeta is nowhere to be seen. The only thing visible is the array of black blades hanging in the darkness.

Hey, I know that move. That’s the one the Blood Queen used. I had no idea Zeta could use it, too, but knowing her, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Of all the people I know, she’s always been the cleverest. Whenever I ask her to do something, she always nails it, even if it’s her first time trying it. On top of that, she improves superfast, and her instincts are fantastic. She might very well be one of the biggest geniuses around. When it comes to raw talent, she’s as good as it gets.

However, even Zeta the Prodigy has a glaring weakness.

“…Huh?”

I hear Zeta’s voice, and her tail materializes out from the darkness.

Ah, there she goes again.

Zeta is fickle and gets bored easily, so she never takes the time to truly master any skill.

“Oops, I didn’t practice enough.”

“Found you!”

The tail transforms into black mist and vanishes right before Delta’s mighty sword can cleave it in twain.

“That was too close.” The only thing perceptible about Zeta is her voice. “I need to take this seriously.”

With that, the black mist gathers and coalesces into tens of thousands of tiny swords that twirl around Delta.

“A Thousand Blades. Certain Death.”

There are clearly way more blades than that, but Zeta keeps her declaration conservative. The lethality of her attack, on the other hand, is anything but. The swarm of blades thrust into Delta and hoist her body up into the night sky.

“Agh, agh… Arrrgh!”

Delta is helpless to resist as she gets sliced up in midair. She narrowly manages to use her arms and legs to protect her vitals, but it looks like she might be in real danger here. Zeta’s gotten stronger than I expected. She’s a relative newcomer to the Seven Shadows, but she’s a bona fide monster who’s been improving like nobody’s business.

“GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Delta’s howl thunders through the night, and her magic sweeps out in a terrifying shock wave.

The ten thousand blades get obliterated.

“N…no way,” Zeta mumbles in disbelief as she spills out from the cloud of mist. She lands like a cat and stares over at Delta’s blood-soaked figure.

Splatch.

Delta spits out a mouthful of blood and glares at Zeta. There isn’t a hint of playfulness left in her eyes.

“………”

Every hair on Zeta’s body stands on end.

Delta manipulates her slime into a colossal black sword. No, that thing is too big to be called a sword. Too massive, and too brutish. When Delta uses it, we call it the Large Hunk of Iron. Normally, Delta mimics us and fights with the same weapons we do, but that isn’t her final form. The savage Large Hunk of Iron is her true weapon, and when she brings it out, that’s proof that Delta the Tyrant is done messing around.

“Grrr…”

A low growl escapes Delta’s throat.

Zeta breaks out into a cold sweat.

I glance over my shoulder, more than a little worried about the safety of the dorms and school building. What to do, what to do? At this rate, they’re liable to get blown away.

The problem is, it bugs me to no end when someone interrupts me in the middle of a battle where I’m playing for keeps, and I’m a big believer in the whole “do unto others” thing.

So I guess that’s it. I say a silent prayer. So long, Midgar Academy. Rest in peace, Skel and Po.

“YOU’RE DEAD.”

Delta’s bloodthirsty magic permeates the Large of Hunk of Iron.

I retreat with some legitimate gusto to put some distance between us. Meanwhile, Zeta…flies into the air. That’s not a metaphor or a turn of phrase or anything. She actually flies upward.

Upon strengthening my vision with magic, I discover that she’s clad herself in a thin layer of black mist.

Oh, huh. I never knew you could use it like that.

“Bye-bye, Doggy.”

With that, she soars off and vanishes into the clouds.

After the briefest of pauses, Delta’s entire body shudders with rage. “G-GET BACK HERE, YOU STUPID CAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!”

She, too, vanishes, leaving a massive gust of wind in her wake.

“Same old same old, huh?”

Their fights never reach a proper conclusion. Either Zeta leaves, or Alpha gives Zeta a piece of her mind. Not me, though. I prefer to just sit back and watch.

Anyhow, guess I’d better head back and get some shut-eye.

“Hmm?”

I sense a number of people drawing closer. It makes sense, considering how much of a ruckus Zeta and Delta just made.

“I know those presences… It’s Alexia and the guards, right?”

I decide to conceal myself and see how this plays out.